The Authentic and Hubristic Pride Scales do not validly assess the two-facet model of pride: Time to rewind and reboot with new measures

The Authentic and Hubristic Pride scales (Tracy & Robins, 2007) have been used in hundreds of studies aiming to investigate the popular two-facet model of pride (Tracy & Robins, 2004, 2007), and they continue to be the primary assessment tools used for that purpose. In 2014, in this journal, Holbrook et al. (2014a, 2014b) raised concerns about the validity of these scales’ scores, such as arguing that the Hubristic Pride scale did not measure pride at all, whereupon Tracy and Robins (2014) responded to defend these scales’ scores’ validities. Marshaling extensive additional data collected in recent years, in the present paper we (a) corroborate some of the central concerns earlier raised by Holbrook et al. and (b) raise novel additional concerns about these scales, such as severe deficits in the Hubristic Pride scale’s measurement precision. We conclude that the Authentic and Hubristic Pride scales are invalid for the purpose of operationalizing Tracy and Robins’ two-facet model of pride. We call upon the field to rewind existing research on the topic and reboot with new measures that can validly assess the still potentially groundbreaking two-facet theory proposed by Tracy and Robins (2004, 2007).